Dumping the gun

This is a term I hear used by the Detroit Fire Department a lot when they go to box alarms for fire. They show up, have a well involved house, get a water supply going and just dump the gun before making their push into the house. Now DFD is definitely their own breed. And they do things very differently. But in this case I think it makes sense.

Around here in MA and a few other places, that I know of, the fire departments will show up to a well involved house and grab a water supply and stretch a 2 1/2 on the dwelling and attempt to start knocking it down. Which is not a bad thing at all but, everyone is tight on man power these days. And the 2 1/2 can take a lot of energy for the first 2 guys arriving on scene to grab a hydrant, stretch, set up and run the pump.

If there is a good water supply coming in to the first due truck, especially in times when man power is such an issue, would the best choice be to dump the gun if possible, make the quick knock down and then when more man power arrives, attempt to make a push for the interior (if safe to do so) or at that time stretch the 2 1/2 lines for exposure and the surround and drown?

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Permalink Reply by Josh Chambers on August 22, 2013 at 8:08pm

We've been using that/those tactic(s) for years, if there's heavy fire venting on our arrival it's getting the deck gun or blitz monitor- Blitz Attack, if it's just a R&C venting out one window we'll usually hit it with a handline from the outside then go in and clean it up- Transitional Attack. With only 2 or 3 on the first Engine we've found that this method buys us some time to get set up and get more manpower on scene to get an interior crew together. We carry 1250 gallons on our engines so we can put out a lot of fire from the outside before we get enough people there to go inside.